This is our second lunar eclipse for the year here in Australia, but unlike the last eclipse seen in April when the Moon was fully eclipsed at Moonrise this time we’ll see the whole eclipse above the horizon.

For you to enjoy the event you’ll only need to have a clear eastern horizon, penumbral begins here on the Gold Coast at 6.14pm and by 7.00pm you’ll really start to see the eclipsed Moon moving into the Earths shadow.

The whole event moves quite slowly and lasts from beginning to end just over five hours…so you’ll have plenty of time to relax and enjoy the spectacle. The best was to view the eclipse is just with your eyes or a pair of binoculars, and if you have a telescope that’s even better but I find it dulls the colour a little bit visually through the eyepiece.

If your taking images you can use your longest telephoto lens on a tripod to take some shot shots but at full eclipse be prepared to take exposures from up to 5-10 seconds, as there’s very little light on the surface of the Moon. If you are not using a tracking mount this may be a problem so turn up the ISO and see how you go at totality.

All lunar eclipses are different it all depends how much dust, smoke or moisture is in the atmosphere that determines how dark or light the eclipsed Moon will look. The only reason we are seeing the Moon at all is because the Suns light is being refracted through the Earths atmosphere and shining onto the surface of the Moon while it's orbiting through the Earths shadow. Please find below a diagram I made up with some of my images to explain what is happening…of course the Earth images is courtesy of NASA :-)

The following information is from Astronomy 2014 published by Quasar Publishing and we astronomers use it every day for our astronomical times and information.